R 19 1885 



KINDLY LIGHT 



KINDLY LIGHT 



SHED FROM MANY SOURCES 

UPON 

EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR. 



SELECTED BY 

F. T. and E. R. C. 

Wlj|H 



AN INTRODUCTION 



HOWARD CROSBY, D.D., LL.D. 

fl 



6 




NEW YORK: 
CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited. 
1885. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The wise King of Israel plucked some very delicious 
plums of thought. One of the juiciest was, "A word 
spoken in due season, how good is it ! " And another 
was much like this : "A word fitly spoken is like apples 
of gold in baskets of silver." The bearer is prized, but 
the thing borne is still more prized. The speaker is 
loved, but the word is reviving. The physician is 
trusted, but it is his medicine that cures. As a man - 
thinketh, so is he, and it is the fitting word which comes 
to direct the thinking and so to make the man. Herein 
is the marrow of consolation, that it regulates the whole 
machinery of thought, and puts it in gear with the 
divine order. He does not know how to console who 
would simply amuse, for amusement has its field on the 
surface, while the pain to be healed is beneath, in the 
soul's centre. The word spoken in due season, the word 
fitly spoken, is the agent of consolation. The " fitly" 



6 



INTRODUCTION. 



makes it a soul-word, a word to reach the heart and 
nestle there, a word to touch the seat of the sorrow, a 
word that being spiritual finds a home in the spirit, and 
becomes there a power, a life. 

Herein has been the efficiency of the Divine Word in 
renewing, reforming, re-creating the shattered soul. 
Herein is the magic of the true, discerning friend, who 
uses that Divine Word and mingles it with the word of a 
divine experience, and so brings back a lustre to the 
eye. 

It is not strange that such a word should be likened 
to light. " Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light 
unto my path." It makes bright and clear what before 
was dark and perplexing. The soul no longer gropes, 
but runs in a straight and easy path. And as light is 
cheering as well as guiding, the soul is full of joy and 
sings along its course. 

This little book, prepared by the sympathetic dis- 
crimination of woman, is meant to be such a kindly 
light. It is a series of words fitly spoken to any who 
feel the life to be at all awry, to any whose waters of 
hope have proved to be a mirage, to any whose cares 
have grown in thickets around the heart, to any who 
are blown hither and thither by changing winds and 



INTRODUCTION. 



7 



can find no rest. The kindly light offered is not a will- 
o'-the-wisp to lead astray, a false light that is formed 
by earthly exhalations, but a light of a sanctified human 
experience. It is a softened sunlight, that carries heal- 
ing on its wings. The authors are quoted not because 
of their fame, but because of their words. The apples of 
gold are what is offered, and yet the baskets of silver 
have not been neglected. Where rhetoric or poetry is 
subservient to truth, they are noble servants, like the 
viziers and pachas of the monarch. "While the true word 
is spiritual, yet it wears a body, and we cannot ignore 
the style of the body when we seek the influence of the 
word. The form of the word as well as its meaning has 
been regarded in this little volume, so that pleasure to 
the aesthetic sense, as well as comfort to the soul, is 
afforded. For every day of the year, here is a golden 
apple. Or, to change the figures, every day's beginning 
may here have its draught of consolation, a strengthen- 
ing draught for the day's duties and events. As some 
before they rise take their cup of coffee for the refresh- 
ing of the body, so we may prescribe one of these re- 
viving thoughts for the spirit's renovation and new prep- 
aration before the activities of the day. During the 
toilette, the thought may be revolved in the mind, and 



8 



INTROD UCTION. 



so settle down into an impulse and wholesome power. 
How rich a day's experience will be, when so begun ! 
How true will be the mind, how ready for emergencies ! 
How happy, too, in the possession of a new treasure, a 
new strength ! With what a satisfaction will it view life, 
as compared with its experience in the old and reckless 
way ! What a symmetry and beauty will it discover, 
where all before was chaos ! 

Each day's portion in this book is very small. It can 
be easily received. There is no protracted study neces- 
sary. The daintiness is appetizing. The one thought 
will live more prosperously when not crowded by other 
thoughts. It will be all the sweeter when tasted by 
itself. It will, as a thing of beauty, become a joy for- 
ever. And so we commend this little book to all sorts 
and conditions of men and women, to whatever is human 
and has a human heart, with its capabilities of sorrow 
and joy, to show them that Earth has no sorrow that 
Heaven cannot heal. We commend it as a guide, 
philosopher and friend, whose words are not Delphic 
in obscurity, but adelphic in kindliness, and whose 
ministry is not perfunctory but cordial, a guide to point 
out the way of truth where there are so many ways of 
error, — a philosopher to explain to the mind what the 



INTRODUCTION. 



9 



spirit may accept by faith, — a friend, to tender the 
heart-touch, which is the seal of all things worthy. 

May this ' ' Kindly Light" be the day-dawn bright 
with promise to many, leading them to the Eternal 
Source of light and the full glory of His beams. 

Howard Crosby. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



JANUARY I. 

Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom, 

Lead Thou me on ! 
The night is dark, and I am far from home, 

Lead Thou me on ! 
Keep Thou my feet ; I do not ask to see 
The distant scene, — one step enough for me. 

John Henry Newman. 

JANUARY 2, 

Do thou good with effort ; the effort shall flee, the 
good endure : Do thou evil with pleasure, the evil shall 
endure, the pleasure flee. 

Anon. 



12 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



JANUARY 3. 

There is a Height higher than mortal thought ; 
There is a Love warmer than mortal love ; 
There is a Life which taketh not its hues 
From Earth or earthly things, and so grows pure 
And higher than the petty cares of men, 
And is a blessed life and glorified. 

Lewis Morris. 

JANUARY 4. 

And lo ! all round us His bright servants stand ; 
Events, His duteous ministers and wise, 
With frowning brows, perhaps, for their disguise, 
But with such wells of love in their deep eyes, 
And such strong rescue hidden in their hands ! 

Sutton. 

JANUARY 5. 

The crowd of cares, the weightiest cross, 

Seem trifles less than light, — 
Earth looks so little and so low 

When faith shines full and bright. 

Faber. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



13 



JANUARY 6. 

Yet I doubt not thro' the ages one increasing 

purpose runs, 
And the thoughts of men are widen'd with the 

process of the suns 

Tennyson. 



JANUARY 7. 

Nothing is left or lost — nothing of good, 
Or lovely ; but whatever its first springs 
Has drawn from God, returns to him again : 
That only which 'twere misery to retain 
Is taken from you, which to keep were loss ; 
Only the scum, the refuse, and the dross 
Are borne away unto the grave of things. 

Archbishop Trench. 



JANUARY 8. 

Forever and forever is it true that reward follows 
obedience, tritest yet truest of all words. It is the one 
all-embracing, unfaltering truth, the gravitation of the 
unruly universe, — Obey and be blest ! 

T. T. Munger. 



14 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



JANUARY 9. 
So oft the doing of God's will 
Our foolish wills undoeth ! 
And yet what idle dream breaks ill, 
Which morning light subdueth ; 
And who would murmur or misdoubt 
Where God's great sunrise finds him out? 

Mrs. Browning. 

JANUAEY 10. 

Once to every man and nation comes the moment 
to decide, 

In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the 
good and evil side. 

Lowell. 
JANUARY II. 

The Night is mother of the Day, 

The Winter of the Spring, 
And ever upon old Decay 

The greenest mosses cling. 
Behind the cloud the starlight lurks, 

Through showers the sunbeams fall ; 
For God, who loveth all His works, 

Has left His Hope with all ! 

Wkitiier. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



15 



JANUARY 12. 

This voice did on my spirit fall, 
Peschiera, when thy bridge I crost, 
" 'Tis better to have fought and lost, 

Than never to have fought at all." 

Clough. 



JANUARY 13. 

From God's glances shrink thou never, 

Meet them ever ; 
Who submits him to his grace, 

Finds that earth no sunshine knoweth 

Such as gloweth 
O'er his pathway all his days. 

Von Canitz. 



JANUARY 14. 

The world dares say no more for its device than 
" Dum spiro spero ; " but the children of God can add 
by virtue of a living hope " Dum ex-spiro spero " 

Leighton. 



i6 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



JANUARY 15. 

And I have felt 
A presence that disturbs me with the joy 
Of elevated thoughts, a sense sublime 
Of something far more deeply interfused, 
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, 
And the round ocean, and the living air, 
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man ; 
A motion and a spirit, that impels 
All thinking things, all objects of all thought, 
And rolls through all things. 

Wordsworth* 

JANUARY l6. 

My heart is awed within me when I think 
Of the great miracle that still goes on 
In silence, round me — the perpetual work 
Of thy creation, finished, yet renewed 
Forever. 

Bryant. 

JANUARY 17. 

What is excellent, 
As God lives, is permanent ; 
Hearts are dust, hearts' loves remain, 
Heart's love will meet thee again. 

Emerson. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



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JANUARY l8. 

How bless' d is he, though ever cross'd, 

That can all crosses blessings make ; 
That finds himself ere he be lost, 

And lose that found, for virtue's sake ; 
That rests in action, acting naught 

But what is good in deed and show ; 
That seeks but God within his thought, 

And thinks but God to love and know. 

John Davies. 

JANUARY 19. 

Do noble things, not dream them, all day long ; 
And so make life, death and that vast forever 
One grand, sweet song. 

Kingsley, 

JANUARY 20. 

Christian faith is a grand cathedral with divinely 
pictured windows. Standing without, you see no glory, 
nor can possibly imagine any ; standing within, every 
ray of light reveals a harmony of unspeakable splendors. 

Hawthorne. 

2 



IS 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



JANUARY 21. 

What can we do o'er whom the unbeholden 
Hangs in a night with which we cannot cope ? 
What but look sunward, and, with faces golden, 
Speak to each other softly of a hope ? — 
Can it be true, the grace He is declaring ? 
Oh, let us trust Him, for His words are fair ! 
Then, what is this, and why art thou despairing ? 
God shall forgive thee all but thy despair. 

F, Myers. 

JANUARY 22. 

Every thought and every deed 
May hold within itself the seed 
Of future good and future meed. 

Lord Houghton. 

JANUARY 23. 

Whene'er a noble deed is wrought, 
Whene'er is spoken a noble thought, 

Our hearts in glad surprise 

To higher levels rise, 

Longfellow. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



^9 



JANUARY 24. 

Though to-day may not fulfill 

All thy hopes, have patience still ; 

For perchance to-morrow's sun 

Sees thy happier days begun. 

As God willeth march the hours, , 

Bringing joy at last in showers, 

And whate'er we ask is ours. 

Gerkardt, 

JANUARY 25. 
Then, Soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss. 

And let that pine, to aggravate thy store ; 
Buy terms Divine in selling hours of dross ; 

Within be fed, without be rich no more : 
So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men ; 
And, Death once dead, there's no more dying then ! 

Shakespeare 

JANUARY 26. 

We will not weep ; for God is standing by us, 
And tears will blind us to the blessed sight ; 

W e will not doubt, if darkness still doth try us, 
Our souls have promise of serenest light. 

W. H. Hurlbert. 



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KINDLY LIGHT. 



JANUARY 27. 

He who believes in goodness has the essence of all 
faith. He is a man 11 of cheerful yesterdays, and con- 
fident to-morrows." 

J. F. Clarke. 



JANUARY 28. 

Every day is a fresh beginning, 
Every morn is the world made new. 

You who are weary of sorrow and sinning, 
Here is a beautiful hope for you. 

Susan Coolidge, 



JANUARY 2g. 

And is it too late ? 
No ! for Time is a fiction and limits not fate. 
Thought alone is eternal. Time thralls it in vain ; 
For the thought that springs upward and yearns to regain 
The pure source of spirit, there is no Too Late. 

Owen Meredith. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



21 



JANUARY 30. 

Say not the struggle naught availeth, 
The labor and the wounds are vain, 

The enemy faints not, nor faileth, 
And as things have been they remain. 



And not by eastern windows only, 

When daylight comes, comes in the light, 

In front, the sun climbs slow, how slowly, 
But westward, look, the land is bright. 

Clough. 



JANUARY 31. 

Through love to light ! Oh, wonderful the way 
That leads from darkness to the perfect day ! 
From darkness and from dolor of the night 
To morning that comes singing o'er the sea. 
Through love to light ! Through light, O God, 
to thee, 

Who art the love of love, the eternal light of light ! 

R. W. Gilder. 



FEBRUARY I. 

Be noble ! and the nobleness that lies 
In other men, sleeping, but never dead, 
Will rise in majesty to meet thine own ; 
Then wilt thou see it gleam in many eyes, 
Then will pure light around thy path be shed, 
And thou wilt nevermore be sad and lone, 

Lowell. 



FEBRUARY 2. 

All service ranks the same with God. 

If now, as formerly He trod 

Paradise, His presence fills 

Our earth, each only as God wills 

Can work — God's puppets, best and worst, 

Are we ; there is no last nor first. 

Browning. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



23 



FEBRUARY 3. 

I thank Thee, Lord, that Thou has kept 

The best in store ; 
We have enough, yet not too much 

To long for more ; 
A yearning for a deeper peace 

Not known before. 

A. A. Procter. 

FEBRUARY 4. 

As yet when all is thought and said, 
The heart still overrules the head, 
Still what we hope we must believe, 
And what is given us receive, — 
Must still believe, for still we hope, 
That, in a world of larger scope, 
What here is faithfully begun 
Will be completed, not undone. 

A. H. Clougk. 

FEBRUARY 5. 

As some rare perfume in a vase of clay 
Prevades it with a fragrance not its own, 

So, when thou dwellest in a mortal soul, 
All heaven's own sweetness seems around it thrown. 

H. B. Stowe. 



24 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



FEBRUARY 6. 

Take courage to intrust your love 

To Him so Named, who guards above, 

Its ends and shall fulfill ; 
Breaking the narrow prayers that may 
Befit your narrow hearts, away 

In his broad, loving will. 

Mrs. Browning . 

FEBRUARY 7. 

Nay, never falter : no great deed is done 
By falterers who ask for certainty. 
No good is certain, but the steadfast mind, 
The undivided will to seek the good : 
'Tis that compels the elements, and wrings 
A human music from the indifferent air. 
The greatest gift the hero leaves his race 
Is to have been a hero. 

George Eliot. 
FEBRUARY 8. 

Darkness in the pathway of man's life 
Is but the shadow of God's providence, 
By the great Sun of Wisdom cast thereon, 
And what is dark below is light in Heaven. 

Whittier. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



25 



FEBRUARY 9. 

Whither leads the path 

To ampler fates that leads ? 

Not down through flowery meads 

To reap an aftermath 
Of youth's vainglorious weeds, 
But up the steep, amid the wrath 
And shock of deadly-hostile creeds, 
By battle's flashes gropes a desperate way. 

Lowell. 

FEBRUARY IO. 

What is God but day, the sun of our eternity, without 
Whom the universe of nature were a mere phosphores- 
cence of fate, unintelligent and cold ; life a driblet of 
vanity ; and eternity itself a protracted and amplified 
nothingness ? 

Horace Bus knell. 

FEBRUARY II. 

Nor knoweth thou what argument 

Thy life to thy neighbor's creed has lent. 

Emerson. 



26 KINDLY LIGHT. 



FEBRUARY 12. 

Think not thou canst sigh a sigh, 
And thy Maker is not by ; 
Think not thou canst weep a tear, 
And thy maker is not near. 

Oh ! He gives to us His joy, 
That our grief He may destroy ; 
Till our grief is fled and gone, 
He doth sit by us and moan. 

William Blake. 

FEBRUARY 1 3. 

Let no one think it hard that he himself is required to 
stem so many opposing tides and storms, in maintaining 
the struggles of duty ; rather let him take it bravely as 
his opportunity. 

Bus knell. 

FEBRUARY 14. 

But hush, my soul, and, vain regrets, be stilled ; 
Find rest in Him who is the complement 
Of whatsoe'er transcends your mortal doom, 
Of broken hope and frustrated intent ; 
In the clear vision and aspect of whom 
All wishes and all longings are fulfilled. 

Trench. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



27 



FEBRUARY 15. 

The great cause flashes by : 
Nearer and clearer its purposes open, 
While louder and prouder the world-echoes cheer us. 

Kingsley. 

FEBRUARY 1 6. 

Not always fall of leaf, nor ever Spring ; 
No endless night, yet no eternal day ; 
The saddest birds a season find to sing ; 
The roughest storm a calm may soon allay : 
Thus with succeeding turns God tempereth all, 
That man may hope to rise, yet fear to fall. 

Robert Southwell. 

FEBRUARY 1 7. 

We know not what Thou art, and yet we love ; 
We know not where Thou dwelFst, yet still above 
We turn our eyes to Thee, knowing Thou wilt take 
Our yearnings and wilt treasure them, and make 
Our little lives fulfill themselves and Thee : 
And in this trust we bear to be. 

Lewis Morris. 



2S 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



FEBRUARY l8. 

Think truly, and thy thoughts 
Shall the world's famine feed ; 

Speak truly, and each work of thine 
Shall be a fruitful seed ; 

Live truly, and thy life shall be 
A great and noble creed. 

A 7ion. 

FEBRUARY ig. 

If Death stands at the end of every vista of human 
bliss, he cannot close up the path so as to prevent our 
recognizing in the light that streams past him from an- 
other world, that the most precious thing in every posses- 
sion is a promise, in every love a prophecy, and in every 
joy a foretaste of immortal bliss. 

Mac Millan. 
FEBRUARY 20. 

The tidal wave of deeper souls 
Into our inmost being rolls, 

And lifts us unawares 

Out of all meaner cares. 

Longfellow. 



KINDLY LIGHT, 



2 9 



FEBRUARY 21. 

Leave God to order all thy ways, 
And hope in Him whate'er betide, 

Thou'lt find Him in the evil days 

Thy all-sufficient strength and guide ; 

Who trusts in God's unchanging love, 

Builds on the rock that nought can move. 

Neumarck. 

FEBRUARY 22. 

If there be nothing celestial without us, it is only 
because all is earthly within ; if no divine colors upon 
our lot, it is because the holy light is faded on the soul : 
if our Father seems distant, it is because we have taken 
our portion of goods and traveled into a far country. 

Martineau. 

FEBRUARY 23. 

So live with men as if God's curious eye 
Did everywhere into thine actions spy ; 
Strive to live well ; tread in the upright ways, 
And rather count thy actions than thy days. 

Thomas Randolph. 



30 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



FEBRUARY 24. 

Oat of Eternity 

This new Day is born ; 
Into Eternity, 

At night, will return. . . . 

Here hath been dawning 

Another blue Day : 
Think, wilt thou let it 

Slip useless away ? 

T. Carlyle. 

FEBRUARY 25. 

From behind the shadow the still small voice — more 
awful than tempest or earthquake — more sure and 
persistent than day and night — is always sounding, full 
of hope and strength to the weariest of us all : " Be of 
good cheer ; I have overcome the world." 

TAomas Hughes. 

FEBRUARY 26. 

It is the idea, the feeling and the love 

God means mankind should strive for and show forth, 

Whatever be the process to that end, — 

And not historic knowledge, logic sound, 

And metaphysical acumen, sure ! 

R. Browning. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



31 



FEBRUARY 27. 

Then said another: " Surely not in vain 

My substance from the common earth was ta'en, 

That He who subtly wrought me into shape 
Should stamp me back to common earth again ! " 

Omar Khayyam. 

FEBRUARY 28. 

Religion springs up in the mind whenever any of the- 
infinite affections and desires press severely against the 
finite conditions of our existence. 

Martineau. 

FEBRUARY 29. 

Love is the invisible, golden thread, that holds 
This pendent world secure to Heaven's base — 
Finer than finest hair, yet stronger far 
Than mighty Atlas, whose broad shoulders bent 
And failed beneath the weight. 

Anon, 



MARCH I. 

Our little systems have their day ; 

They have their day and cease to be ; 

They are but broken lights of Thee, 
And Thou, O Lord, art more than they. 

Tennyson. 

MARCH 2. 

Amid the strife and sorrow that await us, let us re- 
member that the ills of life are not here on their own 
account, but are as a divine challenge and godlike 
wrestling in the night with our too reluctant wills ; and 
since, thus regarded, they are truly evil no more, let us 
embrace the conflict manfully, and fear no defeat to any 
faithful will. 

Martineau. 

MARCH 3. 

To him who believes in a Spirit of Truth, guiding men 
into all truth, the growth of ethical and spiritual relig- 
ion into perfect form in Jesus Christ is a real revelation. 

R. Heber Newton, 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



53 



MARCH 4. 

Be sure, no earnest work 

Of any honest creature, howbeit weak, 

Imperfect, ill-adapted, fails so much, 

It is not gathered as a grain of sand 

To enlarge the sum of human action used 

For carrying out God's end. 

Mrs. Browning. 

MARCH 5. 

Patience, and abnegation of self, and devotion to others, 
This was the lesson a life of trial and sorrow had taught 
her. 

Longfellow. 

MARCH 6. 

Thou cam'st not to thy place by accident, 

It is the very place God meant for thee ; 

And should'st thou then small scope for action see, 

Do not for this give room to discontent ; 

Nor let the time thou owest to God be spent 

In idly dreaming how thou mightest be. 

Trench. 

3 



34 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



MARCH 7. 
Fool ! all that is at all 
Lasts ever, past recall ; 
Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure ; 
What entered into thee 
That was, is, and shall be : 
Time's wheel runs back or stops: Potter and clay endure. 

R. Browning: 

MARCH 8. 

Souls, once enabled to disdain 
Base, sublunary joys, maintain 

Their dignity secure ; 
The fever of desire is passed, 
And love has all its genuine taste, 

Is delicate and pure. 

Madame Guy on. 

MARCH 9. 

Great and sacred is obedience, my friends : he who is 
not able, in the highest majesty of manhood, to obey, 
with clear and open brow, a Law higher than himself, is 
barren of all faith and love ; and tightens his chains, 
moreover, in struggling to be free. 

Martineau. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



35 



MARCH 10. 

For he that feeds men serveth few: 
He serves all who dares be true. 

Emerson. 



MARCH II. 

O power to do ! O baffled will ! 

O prayer and action ! ye are one. - 
Who may not strive, may yet fulfill 
The harder task of standing still, 

And good but wished with God is done ! 

Whittier. 



MARCH 12. 

In all Eternity, no tone can be so sweet 

As where man's heart with God in unison doth beat. 

A ngelus S He sizes. 



MARCH 13 

Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace ; 
thereby good shall come unto thee. 

yob. 



36 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



MARCH 14. 
Let knowledge grow from more to more, 

But more of reverence in us dwell ; 

That mind and soul, according well, 
May make one music as before, 
But vaster. 

Tennyson. 

MARCH 15. 

There is a light in yonder skies, 
A light unseen by outward eyes ; 
But clear and bright to inward sense 
It shines, the star of Providence. 

And faith, unchecked by earthly fears, 
Shall lift its eye, though filled with tears, 
And while around 'tis dark as night, 
Untired, shall mark that heavenly light. 

Madai7ie Guy on. 

MARCH 16. 

Have I done something for the general interest? Well, 
then I have had my reward. Let this always be present 
to my mind. 

Marcus A urelius. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



37 



MARCH 17. 

Did we but use it as we ought, 

This world would school each wandering thought 

To its high state. 

Longfellow. 
MARCH 18. 

My bark is wafted to the strand 

By breath divine; 
And on the helm there rests a hand 

Other than mine. 
One who has known in storms to sail 

I have on board ; 
Above the raving of the gale 

I hear my Lord. 

Dean of Canterbury. 

MARCH 19. 

Shine in my soul, and light and joy impart, 
O blessed Jesus, Sun of my dark heart. 

O cause therein the light of truth to shine ; 
Show me each crooked winding of my heart, 
Change and renew it so in every part, 

That my whole nature be transformed to thine. 

Spitta. 



33 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



MARCH 20. 

God's justice is a bed, where we 
Our anxious hearts may lay, 

And, weary with ourselves, may sleep 
Our discontent away. 

For right is right, since God is God ; 

And right the day must win ; 
To doubt would be disloyalty 

To falter would be sin. 

Faber. 



MARCH 21. 

Duties are ours ; events are God's. This removes an 
infinite burden from the shoulders of a miserable, 
tempted, dying creature. 

Richard Cecil. 



MARCH 22. 

Life is a shadow, — not the shade 
Of aught that stable may be made, — 
But of a bird that wings the skies, 
And with its flight the shadow flies. 

From the Talmud. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



39 



MARCH 23. 

Only waiting till the shadows 

Are a little longer grown ; 
Only waiting till the glimmer 

Of the day's last beam is flown : 
Then from out the gathered darkness 

Holy, deathless stars shall rise, 
By whose light my soul shall gladly 

Tread its pathway to the skies. 

Anon. 



MARCH 24. 

Be thy best thoughts to work divine addressed ; 
Do something, — do it soon, — with all thy might ; 
An angel's wing would droop if long at rest, 
And God Himself inactive were no longer blessed. 

Carlos Wilcox. 

MARCH 25. 

More life ! A prophecy 
Is in that thirsty cry, if read aright : 
Deep calleth unto deep ; life infinite, 

O soul, awaiteth thee ! 

Anon, 



40 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



MARCH 26. 

But what time through the heart and through the brain 
God hath transfixed us, we — so moved before — 
Attain a calm. 

E. B. Browning. 



MARCH 27. 

Shine, light of God ! make broad thy scope 

To all that sin and suffer ; more 
And better than we dare to hope 

With Heaven's compassion make our longings poor ! 

Whittier. 



MARCH 28 

Say, to be just, and kind, and wise, 
There solid self -enjoyment lies. 
Thus resign'd and quiet creep 
To the bed of everlasting sleep, 
Till future life, future no more, 
To light and joy the good restore, 
To light and joy unknown before. 

Robert Burns. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 4 

MARCH 29. 

In sorrow only, unto sorrow, 
Can comfort come ; in manhood only, man 
Perceive man's destiny. In Nature's plan 
Our path is over Midnight to To-morrow. 

Owen Meredith. 



MARCH 30. 

And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a 
conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men. 

Acts. 



MARCH 31. 

I will meet distress and pain, 
I will greet e'en death's dark reign, 
I will lay me in the grave, 
With a heart still glad and brave. 
Whom the Strongest doth defend, 
Whom the Highest counts His friend, 
Cannot perish in the end. 

Gerhardt. 



APRIL I. 



By the high dawn, 
When the light of the sun is strong ! 

By the thick night, 
When the darkness is deep and long ! 

He hath not forsook thee, nor hated ! 
By His mercies, I say, 

The life which will come shall be better 
Than the life of to-day. 

Edwin A mold. 

APRIL 2. 

We will grieve not, rather find 

Strength in what remains behind ; 

In the primal sympathy 

Which, having been, must ever be. 

In the soothing thoughts that spring 

Out of human suffering, 

In the faith that looks through death, 

In years that bring the philosophic mind. 

Wordsworth. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



43 



APRIL 3. 

Thy light upon our evening pour, — 

So may our souls no sunset see ; 
But death to us an open door 
To an eternal morning be. 

Breviary. 

APRIL 4. 

The high that proved too high, the heroic for earth too 
hard, 

The passion that left the ground to lose itself in the sky, 
Are music sent up to God by the lover and the bard ; 
Enough that He heard it once : We shall hear it by and 
by. 

R. Browning. 

APRIL 5. 

God, who whatever frenzy of our fretting 

Vexes sad life to spoil and to destroy, 
Sendeth an hour for peace and for forgetting, 

Setteth in pain the jewel of His joy : — 
Gentle and faithful, tyrannous and tender, 

Ye that have known Him, is He sweet to know ? 
Softly He touches, for the reed is slender, 

Wisely enkindles, for the flame is low. 

F. Myers. 



44 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



APRIL 6. 

Heaven's gates are not so high arched as king's 
palaces ; they that enter there must go upon their knees. 

Daniel Webster. 



APRIL 7. 

Who would sit down and sigh for a lost age of gold 

While the Lord of all ages is here ? 
True hearts will leap up at the trumpet of God, 

And those who can suffer, can dare. 

Charles Kingsley. 



APRIL 8. 

Make a little fence of trust 

Around to-day ; 
Fill the space with loving works, 

And therein stay ; 
Look not through the sheltering bars 

Upon to-morrow, 
God will help thee bear what comes, 

If joy or sorrow. 

Anon. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



45 



APRIL g. 

Be strong to love, O heart ! 

Love knows not wrong ; 
Didst thou love creatures even, 

Life were not long ; 
Didst thou love God in heaven 

Thou wouldst be strong. 

Procter. 

APRIL 10. 
Eterne alteration 

Now follows, now flies ; 
And under pain, pleasure, — 

Under pleasure, pain lies. 

Love works at the centre, 

Heart heaving alway ; 
Forth speed the strong pulses 

To the borders of day, 

Emerson. 

APRIL II. 

Do to-day's duty, fight to-day's temptation ; and do 
not weaken and distract yourself by looking forward to 
things which you cannot see, and could not understand 
if you saw them. 

Charles Kingsley. 



4 6 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



APRIL 12. 

Man is not God, but hath God's end to serve, 
A master to obey, a course to take, 
Somewhat to cast off, somewhat to become. 

R. Browning". 

APRIL 13. 
From earliest dawn till setting sun 
Each living soul might tend to self advance, 
Reflecting thus : My foot, firm planted on the earth, 
Should make me think ' Am I 
Advancing on my road to heaven ? ' 

Buddha. 

APRIL 14. 

Careless seems the great Avenger ; history's pages but 
record 

One death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems 

and the Word ; 
Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the 

throne, — 

Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim 
unknown, 

Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above 
His own. 

Lowell. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



47 



APRIL 15. 

True dignity abides with him alone 
Who, in the silent hour of inward thought, 
Can still suspect, and still revere himself, 
In lowliness of heart. 

Wordsworth. 
APRIL 16. 

Follow with reverent steps the great example 
Of Him whose holy work was " doing good ; " 

So shall the wide earth seem our Father's temple, 
Each loving life a psalm of gratitude. 

Whit tier. 

APRIL 17. 

What shall the future progress be 

Of life with me ? 
God knows, — I roll on Him my care, — 
Night is not night if He be there. 
When daylight is no longer mine, 
And stars forbidden are to shine, 

I'll turn my eyes 
To where eternal day shall rise. 

Hymns of the Church Militant. 



4 8 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



APRIL 1 8. 

Let men see that you are real — inconsistent, it may 
be, sinful : oh, full of sin, impetuous, hasty, perhaps 
stern ; — John was. But compel them to feel that you 
are in earnest. This is the secret of influence. 

F. W. Robertson. 

APRIL 19. 

Earth's crammed with heaven, 
And every common bush afire with God : 
But only he who sees takes off his shoes ; 
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries. 

Mrs. Browning. 

APRIL 20. 

Courage ! We travel through a darksome cave ; 

But still, as nearer to the light we draw, 

Fresh gales will reach us from the upper air, 

And wholesome dews of heaven our foreheads lave, 

The darkness lighten more, till full of awe 

We stand in the open sunshine — unaware. 

R. C. Trench. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



49 



APRIL 21. 

Cur great God always would the greatest gifts impart, 
If but his greatest gifts found not so small a heart. 

A ngelus Silesius. 



APRIL 22. 

Then while the soul its way with sound can cleave, 
And while the arm is strong to strike and heave, 
Let soul and arm give shape that will abide. 

George Eliot, 



APRIL 23. 

Heaven is not gained by a single bound, 
But we build the ladder by which we rise 
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies ; 

And we mount to its summit round by round. 

y. G. Holland. 



APRIL 24. 

This is eternal life ; a life of everlasting love, showing 
itself in everlasting good works ; and whosoever lives 
that life, he lives the life of God and hath eternal life. 

Charles Kingsley, 



50 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



APRIL 25. 

Let us not doubt, but trust ! The end is mystery. 
Bide we ! Of Nero kings, as of the panther, He, 
Our God, can break the teeth. 

Victor Hugo. 



APRIL 26. 

If our love were but more simple 
We should take Him at His word ; 

And our lives would be all sunshine 
In the sweetness of our Lord. 

Faber. 



APRIL 27. 

God is enough ! Thou, who in hope and fear 
Toilest through desert-sands of life, sore tried, 

Climb trustful over death's black ridge, for near 
The bright wells shine : thou wilt be satisfied. 

God doth suffice ! O thou, the patient one, 
Who puttest faith in Him, and none beside, 

Bear yet thy load ; under the setting sun 
The glad tents gleam : thou wilt be satisfied. 

Edwin A mold. 



KINDLY LIGHT, 



51 



APRIL 28. 

For death itself hath not power to kill 
The high resolve of an earnest will. 

Peter Andreas Munch, 

APRIL 29. 

We may not hope to read, 

Or comprehend the whole, 
Or of the law of things, 

Or of the law of soul : 
E'en in the eternal stars 

Dim perturbations rise ; 
And all the searcher's search 

Does not exhaust the skies ; 
He who has framed and brought us hither 
Holds in his hands the whence and whither. 

F. T. Palgrave. 

APRIL 30. 

The grave itself is but a covered bridge, 

Leading from light to light, through a brief darkness. 

L ongfellovj. 



MAY I. 

Things earthly we must know ere love them ; 'tis alone 
Things heavenly that must be first loved and after known! 

Trench. 

MAY 2. 

Strike, Thou the Master, me Thy keys, 
The anthem of the destinies ! 
The minor of Thy loftier strain, 
Our hearts shall breathe the old refrain, 
Thy will be done ! 

Whittier. 

MAY 3. 

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, 

As the swift seasons roll ! 

Leave thy low-vaulted past ! 

Let each new temple, nobler than the last, 

Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, 

Till thou at length art free, 

Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea. 

O. W. Holmes. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



53 



MAY 4. 

In Christ Himself we own our heaven-sent Teacher, 
Master, Friend ; our elder Brother, who in our sinful 
flesh lives our holy aspirations, and, smiling, beckons us 
to follow Him, whispering in our ears — To them that 
receive me I give 1 1 power to become the Sons of God. " 

R. Heber Newton. 

MAY 5. 

I learned that the unspeakable value of true freedom 
consisted not in doing what we please, or all that circum- 
stances allow, but in the power of doing at once and 
without restraint, whatever we consider right. 

Goethe. 

MAY 6. 

There's a good time coming, boys, 

A good time coming : 
Let us aid it all we can, 
Every woman, every man, 

The good time coming. 
Smallest helps, if rightly given, 

Make the impulse stronger ; 
'Twill be strong enough one day; — 

Wait a little longer. 

Charles Mackay. 



54 



KINDL V LIGHT. 



MAY 7. 

Serene I fold my hands and wait, 
Nor care for wind, or tide, or sea ; 

I rave no more 'gainst time or fate, 
For, lo! my own shall come to me. 

I stay my haste, I make delays, 
For what avails this eager pace ? 

I stand amid the eternal ways, 

And what is mine shall know my face. 

John Burroughs. 

MAY 8. 

I hate to see things done by halves. If it be right, do 
it boldly ; if it be wrong, leave it undone. 

Gilpin. 



MAY 9. 

Rest is not quitting 
This busy career ; 

Rest is the fitting 
Of self to one's sphere. 



Goethe. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



55 



MAY 10. 

The whole cross is more easily carried than the half 

Drummond. 

MAY II. 

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; 
and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor 
crying, neither shall there be any more pain. 

Revelation, 

MAY 12. 

There shall never be one lost good ! What was shall 

live as before ; 
The evil is null, is naught, is silence implying sound ; 
What was good, shall be good, with, for evil, so much 

good more ; 

On the earth the broken arcs ; in the heaven a perfect 
round. 

Robert Browning. 

MAY 13. 

Daily struggling, though unloved and lonely, 

Every day a rich reward will give, 
Thou wilt find, by hearty striving only, 

And truly loving, thou canst truly live. 

Harriet Winslow. 



56 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



MAY 14. 

Give me my scallop shell of Quiet, 

My staff of Faith to walk upon ; 
My scrip of Joy, immortal diet ; 

My bottle of Salvation ; 
My gown of Glory, (Hope's true gage,) 
And thus I'll take my Pilgrimage. 

Sir Walter Raleigh. 



MAY 15. 

The will to neither strive nor cry, 
The power to feel with others give ! 

Calm, calm me more ! nor let me die 
Before I have begun to live. 

Matthew Arnold. 



MAY 16. 

For God more bounteous was Himself to give 
To make man able to uplift himself, 
Than if He only of Himself had pardoned. 

Dante. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



57 



MAY 17. 

What matter if I stand alone ? 

I wait with joy the coming years ; 
My heart shall reap where it has sown, 

And garner up its fruit of tears. 

John Burroughs. 



MAY 18. 

His commandments grievous are not 

Longer than men think them so ; 
Though He send me forth, I care not, 
Whilst He gives me strength to go ; 
When or whither, all is one ; 
On His business, not mine own, 
I shall never go alone. 

Quarles. 



MAY 19. 

Who hath a greater combat than he that laboureth to 
overcome himself ? This ought to be our endeavour to 
conquer ourselves, and daily to wax stronger, and to 
grow in holiness. 

Thomas d Kempis. 



5S 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



MAY 20. 

The consciousness of duty performed gives us music 
at midnight. 

George Herbert. 

MAY 21. 

The many waves of thought, the mighty tides, 
The ground-swell that rolls up from other lands, 
From far-off worlds, from dim, eternal shores, 
Whose echo dashes on life's wave-worn strands, 
This vague, dark tumult of the inner sea 
Grows calm, grows bright, O risen Lord, in Thee ! 

H. B. Stowe. 

MAY 22. 

For tho' the bright moment of promising is but a 
moment and cannot be prolonged, yet, if sincere in its 
moment's extravagant goodness, why, trust it and know 
the man by it, I say— not by his performance — which is 
half the world's work, interfere as the world needs must 
with its accidents and circumstances, — the profession 
was purely the man's own ! I judge people by what 
they might be, not are, nor will be. 

Robert Browning. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



59 



MAY 23. 

So build we up the Being that we are ; 

Thus deeply drinking in the Soul of things, 
We shall be wise perforce ; and while inspired 
By choice, and conscious that the Will is free, 
Unswerving shall we move, as if impelled 
By strict necessity, along the path 
Of order and of good. 

Wordsworth. 

MAY 24. 
I will not doubt the Love untold, 

Which not my worth nor want hath bought, 
Which wooed me young and woos me old, 

And to this evening hath me brought. 

Thoreau 

MAY 25. 

I hence appeal 
To the dear Christian church — that we may do 
Our Father's business in these temples mirk, 
Thus swift and steadfast, thus intent and strong, 
While thus, apart from toil, our souls pursue 
Some high, calm, spheric tune, and prove our work 
The better for the sweetness of our song. 

Elizabeth B. Browning. 



6o 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



MAY 26. 

The sum of all is — yes, my doubt is great, 
My faith's the greater — then my faith's enough. 

Robert Browning. 

MAY 27. 

Vain it is to watch beside 

The pits where we our talents hide ; 

"We must face the noise and strife 

Of the market-place of life, 
That our trustiness be tried. 

Anon. 

MAY 28. 

The hand that rounded Peter's dome, 
And groined the aisles of Christian Rome, 
Wrought in a sad sincerity ; 
Himself from God he could not free ; 
He builded better than he knew ; 
The conscious stone to beauty grew. 

E7nerson. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



61 



MAY 29. 

To face a great idea and, owning its mastery, to put 
our hands into its hands, saying, 11 Lead where you will, 
and I will go with you ; " that is always a more cou- 
rageous thing than it is to fight with giants or to bear 
pain. 

Phillies Brooks. 

MAY 30. 

I hold, in truth, with him who sings 
To one clear harp in divers tones, 
That men may rise on stepping stones 

Of their dead selves to higher things. 

Tennyson. 

MAY 31. 

O Lord, self-renunciation is not the work of one day, 
nor children's sport ; yea, rather in this word is included 
all perfection. 

Thomas & Kemfiis. 



JUNE I. 



We feel this sentient self the counterpart 
Of some self vaster than the star-girt sky. 

Symonds. 

JUNE 2. 

Forenoon, and afternoon, and night ; — Forenoon, 
And afternoon, and night ; — Forenoon, and — what ! 
The empty song repeats itself. No more ? 
Yea, that is life : make this forenoon sublime, 
This afternoon a psalm, this night a prayer, 
And Time is conquered, and thy crown is won. 

E. R. SilL 

JUNE 3. 

Life's mystery — deep, restless as the ocean — 
Hath surged and wailed for ages to and fro ; 

Earth's generations watch its ceaseless motion, 
As in and out its hollow moanings flow. 

Shivering and yearning by the unknown sea. 

Let my soul calm itself, O God, in Thee. 

Anon. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



63 



JUNE 4. 

'Tis loving and serving 
The highest and best ! 

'Tis onward ! unswerving, 
And that is true rest. 

Goethe. 



JUNE 5. 

I take one decisive and immediate step, and resign 
my all to the sufficiency of my Saviour. 

Thomas Chalmers. 



JUNE 6. 

Goodness Divine, which from itself doth spurn 
All envy, burning in itself, so sparkles 
That the eternal beauties it unfolds. 
Whate'er from this immediately distils 
Has afterward no end, for ne'er removed 
Is its impression when it sets its seal. 

Dante. 



6 4 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



JUNE 7. 

Life that shall send 
A challenge to its end, 
And, when it comes, say, 
" Welcome, friend ! " 

Crashaw. 

JUNE 8. 

Why shouldst thou fill to-day with sorrow 
About to-morrow, 
My heart ? 
One watches all with care most true, 

Doubt not that He will give thee too 
Thy part. 

Paul Flemming. 



JUNE 9. 

Lie not, neither to thyself, nor men, nor God. Let 
mouth and heart be one — beat and speak together, and 
make both felt in action. It is for cowards to lie. 

George Herbert. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



65 



JUNE IO. 

Children of men ? not that your age excel 
In pride of life the ages of your sires, 
But that ye think clear, feel deep, bear fruit well, 
The Friend of man desires. 

Matthew A mold. 

JUNE II. 

A man may look on glass, 

On it may stay his eye ; 
Or, if he pleases, through it pass, 

And then the heaven espy. 

George Herbert. 

JUNE 12. 

Not so in haste, my heart ; 
Have faith in God, and wait ; 
Although He linger long, 
He never comes too late. 

He never comes too late ; 
He knoweth what is best : 
Vex not thyself in vain ; 
Until He cometh, rest. 



5 



66 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



JUNE 13. 

Great hearts alone understand how much glory there 
is in being good. 

Mickelet. 

JUNE 14. 

How happy is he born and taught 
That serveth not another's will ; 
Whose armour is his honest thought 
And simple truth his utmost skill ! 

This man is freed from servile bands 
Of hope to rise, or fear to fall ; 
Lord of himself, though not of lands ; 
And having nothing, yet hath all. 

SirH. Walton. 

JUNE 15. 

Without Thy presence, wealth is bags of cares ; 
Wisdom, but folly ; joy, disquiet, sadness ; 
Friendship is treason, and delights are snares ; 
Pleasure's but pain, and mirth but pleasing madness. 
Without Thee, Lord, things be not what they be ; 
Nor have they being, when compared with Thee. 

Quarles. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



67 



JUNE 16. 

Trust that man in nothing who has not a conscience 
in everything. 

Laurence Sterne. 



JUNE 17. 

Peace ! Independence ! Truth ! go forth 

Earth's compass round ; 
And your high priesthood shall make earth 

All hallowed ground ! 

Thomas Campbell. 



JUNE 18. 

God, who the universe doth hold 

In his fold, 
Is my shepherd kind and heedful, — 
Is my shepherd, and doth keepe 

We his sheepe 
Still supplied with all things needfulle. 

Francis Davison. 



63 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



JUNE 19. 
Let us leave God alone ! 
Why should I doubt He will explain in time 
What I feel now, but fail to find the words. 

Robert Browning. 

JUNE 20. 

Truly at the day of judgment we shall not be examined 
as to what we have read, but as to what we have done ; 
not as to how well we have spoken, but as to how relig- 
iously we have lived. 

Thomas a Kempis. 
JUNE 21. 

The clouds which rise with thunder, slake 

Our thirsty souls with rain ; 
The blow most dreaded falls to break 

From off our limbs a chain ; 
And wrongs of man to man but make 

The love of God more plain. 
As, through the shadowy lens of even, 
The eye looks furthest into heaven 
On gleams of star and depths of blue 
The glaring sunshine never knew ! 

Whit tier 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



69 



JUNE 22. 

If Heavenly grace enter in and true charity, there 
will be no envy nor narrowness of heart, neither will 
self-love busy itself. For Divine charity overcometh all 
things, and enlargeth all the powers of the soul. 

Thomas a Ke7iij>is. 



JUNE 23. 

The trivial round, the common task, 
Would furnish all we ought to ask ; 
Room to deny ourselves ; a road 
To bring us, daily, nearer God. 

Keble. 



JUNE 24. 

Thus at the flaming forge of life 
Our fortunes must be wrought ; 

Thus on its sounding anvil shaped 
Each burning deed and thought ! 

Longfellow. 



7 o 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



JUNE 25. 

No true and permanent fame can be founded, except 
in labors which promote the happiness of mankind. 

Charles Sumner. 



JUNE 26. 

Every inmost aspiration is God's angel undefiled ; 
And in every " O my Father ! " slumbers deep a 11 Here, 
my child." 

Dscheladeddin. 



JUNE 27. 

Still hope ! still act ! Be sure that life, 
The source and strength of every good, 

Wastes down in feeling's empty strife, 
And dies in dreaming's sickly mood. 

To toil, in tasks however mean, 

For all we know of right and true, — 

In this alone our worth is seen ; 
'Tis this we were ordained to do. 

John Sterling. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



71 



JUNE 28. 

Consider this, 
That in the course of justice none of us 
Should see salvation ; we do pray for mercy ; 
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render 
The deeds of mercy. 

Shakespeare . 

JUNE 29. 

Not to scan thy Father's counsels, 
But perform them, is thy task ; 

Duty finished— then the Why 
Of thy being thou'lt not ask. 

Anon. 



JUNE 30. 

The real truth about the manliness of Christ seems to 
be this : that He is so like us that He makes us know 
that we may be like Him, and so unlike us that He 
makes us know that we must be unlike our present selves 
before we can be like Him. 

Phillips Brooks. 



JULY I. 

No seed shall perish which the soul has sown, 
Nothing in man declines toward death, but flies 

Heavenward to fold pure plumes in Paradise, 
And build the immortal concert tone by tone. 

G. O. Sy77W7ids. 

JULY 2. 

God loves to be longed for, He loves to be sought, 
For He sought us Himself with such longing and love 1 

He died for desire of us, marvellous thought ! 
And He yearns for us now to be with Him above. 

Faber. 

JULY 3. 

We, meantime, our ills heap up 

Against this work-day world, this ill-spread feast 

As if ourselves were better certainly, 

Than what we come to. Maker and High Priest, 

I ask thee not my joys to multiply, 

Only to make me worthier of the least. 

E. B. Browning. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



73 



JULY 4. 

Each on his cross, by Thee we hang a while, watching 

Thy patient smile, 
Till we have learn'd to say, 1 4 Tis justly done, 
Only in glory, Lord, Thy sinful servant own." 

Keble. 



JULY 5. 

From day to day 
Age steals on us, but meets Thee never : 
Thy power is life's support and stay, — 
We praise Thee, sing Thee, Lord ! forever. 

John Bowring. 



JULY 6. 

Life is only bright where it proceedeth 
Towards a truer, deeper Life above ; 

Human love is sweetest when it leadeth 
To a more divine and perfect love. 

A. Procter. 



74 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



JULY 7. 

From inordinate love and vain fear ariseth all disquiet- 
ness of heart and distraction of the mind. 

Thomas a Kempis. 



JULY 8. 

Thrice blest whose lives are faithful prayers, 
Whose loves in higher love endure ; 
What souls possess themselves so pure, 

Or is there blessedness like theirs ? 

Tennyson. 



JULY 9. 

Alone with God ! He mercy lends ; 
Life's fainting hope, life's meagre ends, 
Life's dwarfing pain He comprehends. 

Alone with God ! He feeleth well, 
The soul's pent life that will o'erwell ; 
The life-long want no words may tell i 

Anon. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



75 



JULY 10. 

Man's Unhappiness, as I construe, comes of his 
Greatness ; it is because there is an Infinite in him, 
which with all his cunning, he cannot quite bury under 
the Finite. 

Thomas Carlyle. 



JULY II. 

He that forgets his friend is ungrateful to him, but he 
that forgets his Saviour is unmerciful to himself. 

John Bunyan. 



JULY 12. 

What though the comforts of the light 

This gloomy night denies ; 
Though me to trouble and affright, 

Unwelcome darkness tries. 
What should I doubt ? WTiom should I fear ? 

Or why disheartened be ? 
Since Thou, O God ! art ev'rywhere, 

And present still with me. 

George Wither. 



76 



KINDLY LIGHT' 



JULY 13. 

Inspire me, Thou, in every glance, 
Of all our dreams confuse as chance, 
In every change of mortal things, 
To see a power from thee that springs. 

In every human word and deed, 
Each flash of feeling, will, or creed, 
To know a plan ordained above, 
Begun and ending all in love. 

Sterling. 

JULY 14. 

Rejoice we are allied 

To That which doth provide 

And not partake, effect and not receive ! 

Robert Browning. 

JULY 15. 

The severe prerogatives of an existence half divine are 
ours. To wear away life in unproductive harmlessness 
is innocent no more : with the glory we take the cross ; 
and, instead of slumbering at noon in Eden, must keep 
the midnight watch within Gethsemane. 

Martineau. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



77 



JULY l6. 

Still waits kind nature to impart 
Her choicest gifts to such as gain 

An entrance to her loving heart 

Through the sharp discipline of pain. 

Forever from the hand that takes 
One blessing from us others fall ; 

And, soon or late, our Father makes 
His perfect recompense to all. 

Whit tier. 

JULY 17. 

A perfect faith would lift us absolutely above fear. It 
is in the cracks, crannies, and gulfy faults of our belief, 
the gaps that are not faith, that the snow of apprehen- 
sion settles and the ice of unkindness forms. 

George MacDonald. 

JULY l8. 

He that doth the ravens feed, 
Yea, providently caters for the sparrow, 
Be comfort to mine age ! 

Shakespeare. 



73 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



JULY 19. 

Fond children, ye desire 

To please each other well ; 

Another round, a higher 

Ye shall climb on the heavenly stair, 

And selfish preference forbear. 

Emerson. 

JULY 20. 

Strong feelings, warm expressions, varied internal ex- 
perience co-existing with disobedience, God counts not 
as love. Mere weak feeling may not usurp that sacred 
name. 

F. W. Robertson. 

JULY 21. 

The older I grow — and I now stand on the brink of 
eternity — the more comes back to me that sentence in the 
Catechism which I learned when a child, and the fuller 
and deeper its meaning becomes, "What is the chief 
end of man? To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever." 

TJios. Carlyle. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



79 



JULY 22. 

Life, which all creatures love and strive to keep, 
Wonderful, dear, and pleasant unto each, 
Even to the meanest ; yea, a boon to all 
Where pity is, for pity makes the world 
Soft to the weak and noble to the strong, 

Edwin A mold. 



JULY 23. 

Hast thou not known ? hast thou not heard that the 
everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of 
the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no 
searching of his understanding. 

He giveth power to the faint ; and to them that have 
no might he increaseth strength. 

Isaiah. 



JULY 24. 

Life for delays and doubts no time dost give ; 
None ever yet made haste enough to live. 

Cowley. 



So 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



JULY 25. 

There are two worlds ; the world that we can meas- 
ure with line and rule, and the world that we feel with 
our hearts and imaginations. 

Leigh Hunt. 
JULY 26. 

O gentlemen, the time of life is short ; 

To spend that shortness basely were too long. 

Shakespeare. 



JULY 27. 

Learn : the spirit's gravitation 

Still must differ from the tear's. 
Hope : with all the strength thou usest 

In embracing thy despair : 
Love ; the earthly love thou losest 

Shall return to thee more fair. 
Work : make clear the forest-tangles 

Of the wildest stranger-land ; 
Trust : the blessed deathly angels 

Whisper, ' Sabbath hours at hand ! ' 

E. B. Browning. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



81 



JULY 28. 

Stronger by weakness, wiser men become 
As they draw near to their eternal home ; 
Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view, 
That stand upon the threshold of the new. 

Waller. 

JULY 29. 

I believe that we cannot live better than in seeking to 
become better, nor more agreeably than having a clear 
conscience. 

Socrates. 

JULY 30. 

How shall I do to love ? Believe. How shall I do 
to believe ? Love. 

Leighton. 
JULY 31. 

What a power man has to do nothing except what 
God will approve, and to accept all that God may give 
him ! 

Marcus A urelius. 
6 



AUGUST I. 



Be but faithful, that is all ; 
Go right on, and close behind thee 
There shall follow still and find thee 
Help, sure help. 

Clough. 

AUGUST 2. 

Lord, shall we grumble when thy flames do scourge us ? 
Our sins breathe fire ; that fire returns to purge us. 
Lord, what an alchymist art thou, whose skill 
Transmutes to perfect good from perfect ill ! 

Quarles. 

AUGUST 3. 

Each word, each act shines clear before the throne, 
There He makes all things whole — not down to vice 
But up to good sustained by strong desire 
This faith prompts man to soar. 

G. A. Symonds. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



33 



AUGUST 4. 

There is no place where earth's sorrows 
Are more felt than up in heaven ; 

There is no place where earth's failings 
Have such kindly judgment given. 

For the love of God is broader 

Than the measures of man's mind , 

And the Heart of the Eternal 
Is most wonderfully kind. 

Faber. 

AUGUST 5. 

The steps of Time have a threefold gait : 
Loitering slow the Future advances ; 
Arrow swift by the Present glances ; 

Ever the Past holds its fixed estate. 

Confucitis. 

AUGUST 6. 

Blessed is the man who has found his work, let him ask 
no other blessedness. Know thy work, and do it : and 
work at it like Hercules. One monster there is in the 
world — the idle man. 

Thomas Carlyle. 



6 4 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



AUGUST 7. 

Thou wast by God then not forgotten when 

Thou wast a seed, thy nature in suspense : 
He gave thee soul and reason, wisdom, ken, 

Beauty and speech, reflection, judgment, sense ; 
He, on thy hand, arrayed thy fingers ten, 

And thy arms fasten'd to Thy shoulders. Whence 
Canst thou then think, O, then most weak of men ! 

He'd be unmindful of thy subsistence ? 

Saadi. 

AUGUST 8. 

. . . . Life is not as idle ore, 
But iron dug from central gloom, 
And heated hot with burning fears, 
And dipt in baths of hissing tears, 
And batter' d with the shocks of doom 
To shape and use. 

Tennyson. 
AUGUST 9. 

And so the Word had breath, and wrought 
With human hands the creed of creeds, 
In loveliness of perfect deeds 

More strong than all poetic thought. 

Tennyson 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



85 



AUGUST 10. 

Let us think of the love of God, which we shall feel 
in its full tide upon our souls. Let us think of that 
marvelous career of sublime occupation which shall 
belong to the spirits of just men made perfect ; when we 
shall fill a higher place in God's universe, and more con- 
sciously, and with more distinct insight, co-operate with 
God in the rule over His Creation. 

F. IV. Robertson. 

AUGUST II. 

Were all the year one constant sunshine, wee 

Should have no flowres ; 
All would be drought and leanness ; not a tree 

Would make us bowres. 
Beauty consists in colours ; and that's best 
Which is not fixt, but flies and flowes. 

Henry Vaughan. 

AUGUST 12. 

Nothing less than the majesty of God and the powers 
of the world to come can maintain the place and sanc- 
tity of our homes, the order and serenity of our minds, 
the spirit of patience and tender mercy in our hearts. 

Martineau. 



86 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



AUGUST 13. 

In the least things, have faith, yet distrust in the great- 
est of all ? 

Do I find love so full in my nature, God's ultimate gift, 
That I doubt his own love can compete with it ? here 
the parts shift ? 

Robert Browning. 

AUGUST 14. 

To him, — whose near end stealing 
Through heart and limbs presages night, — 
Who kneeling, 

"Who kneeling, sure appealing, 

Turns soul and hands 

Where mercy stands, 
The Lord will make it light. 

De la Motte Fouque. 

\ AUGUST 15. 

Alone, O Love ineffable ! 

Thy saving name is given : 
To turn aside from thee is hell, 

To walk with thee is heaven ! 

Whittier. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



AUGUST 1 6. 
One Power, too, is it, who doth give 
The food without us, and within 
The strength that makes it nutritive. 

Clough. 

AUGUST 17. 

The contemplation of celestial things will make a man 
both speak and think more sublimely and magnificently 
when he descends to human affairs. 

Cicero. 

AUGUST 18. 

Love is the root of creation ; God's essence ; worlds with- 
out number 

Lie in His bosom like children ; He made them for 

this purpose only. 
Only to love and to be loved again, He breathed forth 

His Spirit 

Into the slumbering dust, and upright standing, it laid 
its 

Hand on its heart, and felt it was warm with a flame out 

of heaven. 
Quench, O quench not that flame ! 

Longfellow. 



S3 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



AUGUST 19. 

The deeds we do, the words we say, 
Into still air they seem to fleet ; 

We count them ever past ; 

But they shall last — 
In the dread judgment they 
And we shall meet. 

Jo7i7i Keble. 

AUGUST 20. 

All the forms are fugitive, 
But the substances survive. 
Ever fresh the broad creation 
A divine improvisation, 
From the heart of God proceeds, 
A single will, a million deeds. 

Emerscn. 

AUGUST 21. 

Every word, thought, and deed has its influence upon 
the destiny of man. Every life, well spent or ill spent, 
bears with it a long train of consequences, extending 
through generations yet unborn. 

Samuel Smiles. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



89 



AUGUST 22. 

Dare to be true ; nothing can need a lie ; 

A fault which needs it most grows two thereby. 

George Herbert. 

AUGUST 23. 

Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens ; and thy faith- 
fulness reacheth unto the clouds. Thy righteousness is 
like the great mountains ; thy judgments are a great 
deep ; O Lord, thou preservest man and beast. 

Psalms. 

AUGUST 24. 

Pray, pray, thou who also weepest, 

And the drops will slacken so ; 
Weep, weep : — and the watch thou keepest, 

With a quicker count will go. 
Think : — the shadow on the dial 

For the nature most undone 
Marks the passing of the trial, 

Proves the presence of the sun. 

E. B. Browning. 



go 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



AUGUST 25. 

Great occasions of serving God present themselves 
seldom, but little ones frequently. Now he that shall 
be faithful in small matters, says our Saviour, shall beset 
over great things. Perform all things, then, in the name 
of God, and you will do all things well. 

St. Francis de Sales. 

AUGUST 26. 

We have two lives ; 
The soul of man is like the rolling world, 
One-half in day, the other dipt in night ; 
The one has music and the flying cloud, 
The other silence and the wakeful stars. 

Alexander Smith* 

AUGUST 27. 

A sacred burden in this life ye bear ; 
Look on it, lift it, bear it solemnly, 
Stand up and walk beneath it steadfastly, 
Fail not for sorrow, falter not for sin, 
But onward, upward, till the goal ye win. 

Francis A nn Kemble. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



91 



AUGUST 28. 

Life's but a means unto an end — that end, 
Beginning, mean, and end of all things — God. 

Bailey. 

AUGUST 29. 

Reflect that life, like ev'ry other blessing, 
Derives its value from its use alone. 

Samuel Johnson. 

AUGUST 30. 

Faithful prayer always implies correlative exertion ; 
and no man can ask honestly and hopefully to be delivered 
from temptation, unless he has himself honestly and 
firmly determined to do the best he can to keep out of 
it. 

John Ruskin. 

AUGUST 31. 

Against the darkness outer 
God's light his likeness takes, 

And He from the mighty doubter 
The great believer makes. 

R. IV. Gzldsr. 



SEPTEMBER I. 

It matters not what men assume to be ; 

Or good, or bad, they are but what they are. 

Bailey. 

SEPTEMBER 2. 

Better not to be at all 
Than not be noble. 

Howe'er it be, it seems to me, 
'Tis only noble to be good. 

Tennyson. 

SEPTEMBER 3. 

Everywhere and at all times it is in thy power piously 
to acquiesce in thy present condition, and to behave 
justly to those who are about thee, and to exert thy skill 
upon thy present thoughts, that nothing steal into them 
without being well examined. 

Marcus A ur elites. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



93 



SEPTEMBER 4. 

In Heaven's wide chambers there is room 
For love and pity, and for helpful deeds ; 

Else were our summons thither but a doom 
To life more vain than this in clayey weeds. 

Lowell. 



SEPTEMBER 5. 

Life and religion are one, or neither is anything . . . 
. . Religion is no way of life, no show of life, no ob- 
servance of any sort. It is neither the food nor the medi- 
cine of being. It is life essential. 

. George Macdonald. 



SEPTEMBER 6. 

By all means use sometimes to be alone, 

Salute thyself : see what thy soul doth wear. 
Dare to look in thy chest ; for 'tis thine own : 
And tumble up and down what thou find'st there. 
Who cannot rest till he good fellows finde, 
He breaks up house, turns out of doores his mind. 

George Herbert. 



94 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



SEPTEMBER 7. 

Consequences are unpitying. Our deeds carry their 
terrible consequences, quite apart from any fluctuations 
that went before — consequences that are hardly ever con- 
fined to ourselves. 

George Eliot. 



SEPTEMBER 8. 

O for one minute hark what we are saying ; 

This is not pleasure that we ask of Thee ! 
Nay, let all life be weary with our praying, 

Streaming of tears and bending of the knee; — 

Only we ask thro' shadows of the valley 
Stay of Thy staff and guiding of Thy rod, 

Only when rulers of the darkness rally, 
Be Thou beside us, very near, O God ! 

Frederic Myers. 



SEPTEMBER 9. 

Know how sublime a thing it is 
To suffer and be strong. 

LongefUow. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



95 



SEPTEMBER IO. 

Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth 
the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and 
hath no light ? let him trust in the name of the Lord 
and stay upon his God. 

Isaiah. 



SEPTEMBER II. 

For th' Eternal rules above us, 
Land and oceans rules His will ; 
Lions even as lambs shall love us, 
And the proudest waves be still. 

Whetted sword to scabbard cleaving, 
Faith and Hope victorious see : 
Strong, who loving and believing, 
Prays, O Lord, to Thee. 

Goethe, translated by 

Carlyle. 



SEPTEMBER 12. 

It is a great thing to sacrifice, but a greater to consent 
not to sacrifice in one's own way. 

CM. Younge. 



q6 kindly light. 



SEPTEMBER 1 3. 

" Till Death us part." 

So speaks the heart, 
When each to each repeats the words of doom ; 

Through blessing and through curse, 

For better and for worse, 
We will be one, till that dread hour shall come. 

Till Death us join, 

Oh voice yet more divine ! 
That to the broken heart breathes hope sublime ; 

Through lonely hours, 

And shattered powers, 
We still are one, despite of change and time. 

Dean Stanley. 

SEPTEMBER 14. 

The steps of faith fall on the seeming void, 
And find the rock beneath. 

IVhittier. 

SEPTEMBER 1 5. 

And now men see not the bright light which is in the 
clouds ; but the wind passeth and cleanseth it. 

yob. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



97 



SEPTEMBER 1 6. 

Let go the breath ! 

There is no death 
To the living soul, nor loss, nor harm. 

Not of the clod 

Is the life of God : 
Let it mount, as it will from form to form. 

Charles G. Ames. 

SEPTEMBER 1 7. 

W e praise Thee for Thy Saints, O God ! 

As we behold their shining forms 
And see them marching on their road, 

Our courage stirs, our spirit warms. 

Gods heralds they ; to us they call ; 

Their lives to us are prophecies 
Of glories dawning for us all 

As we into their stature rise. 

Charles F. Gilson. 

SEPTEMBER 1 8. 

Truth is the highest virtue, and seldom grows wild. 
It is difficult to speak the truth, and those who have 
tried it longest know how difficult it is. 

George Macdonald. 

7 



9* 



KINDLY LIGHT, 



SEPTEMBER 1 9. 

I take Thy hand and fears grow still ; 

Behold Thy face and doubts remove; 
Who would not yield his wavering will 

To perfect Truth, and boundless Love ! 

Samuel Johnson. 

SEPTEMBER 20. 

When the sun withdraws his light, 
Lo ! the stars of God are there ; 

Present hosts unseen till night — 
Matchless, countless, silent, fair. 

Children, oft when joy shines clear 

Lost is hold of hope divine ; 
Then the night of grief draws near, 

And God's countless comforts shine. 

Jean Inge low. 

SEPTEMBER 21. 

I say now to each of you — O that you each may 
know the time of your visitation — and may listen to the 
voice of Christ, whenever and however He may whisper 
to you, 1 ' Come unto Me, thou weary and heavy-laden 
heart, and I will give thee Rest" 

Charles Kingsley. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



99 



SEPTEMBER 22. 

Our place is to be true to the best which we know, to 
seek that, and do that ; and if by ' 1 Virtue is its own re- 
ward " be meant that the good man cares only to con- 
tinue good, desiring nothing more, then it is a true and 
noble saying. 

J. A . Frotide. 

SEPTEMBER 23. 

O pusillanimous heart, be comforted, 

And, like a cheerful traveler take the road, 

Singing beside the hedge. What if the bread 
Be bitter in thine inn, and thou unshod 

To meet the flints ? at least it may be said, 

" Because the way is short, I thank Thee God ! " 

E. B. Browning. 

SEPTEMBER 24. 

Love is the goal, love is the way we wend, 
Love is our parallel unending line 
Whose only perfect Parallel is Christ, 

Beginning not begun, End without end ; 
For He who hath the heart of God sufficed, 
Can satisfy all hearts, — yea, thine and mine. 

C. G. Rossetti. 



100 ^ KINDLY LIGHT. 



SEPTEMBER 25. 

God doth not need 
Either man's work or his own gifts ; who best 
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best ; his state 
Is kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed, 
And post o'er land and ocean without rest ; 
They also serve who only stand and wait. 

John Milton. 

SEPTEMBER 26. 

Subsists no law of life outside of life, 
No perfect manners, without Christian souls : 
The Christ Himself had been no Lawgiver, 
Unless He had given the life, too, with the law. 

Mrs, Browning. 

SEPTEMBER 27. 

To get good is animal ; to do good is human ; to be 
good is Divine. The true use of a man's possessions is 
to help his work ; and the best end of all his work is to 
show us what he is. The noblest workers of our world 
bequeath us nothing so great as the image of themselves. 
Their task, be it ever so glorious, is historical and tran- 
sient ; the majesty of their spirit is essential and eternal. 

James Martineau. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



SEPTEMBER 28. 

Our little lives are kept in equipoise 
By opposite attractions and desires ; 

The struggle of the instinct that enjoys, 
And the more noble instinct that aspires. 

Longfellow. 

SEPTEMBER 29. 

It fortifies my soul to know- 
That, though I perish, Truth is so : 
That, howsoe'er I stray and range, 
Whate'er I do, Thou dost not change. 
I steadier step when I recall 
That, if I slip, Thou dost not fall. 

A. H. Clough. 

SEPTEMBER 30. 

We can, indeed, only have the highest happiness, such 
as goes along with being a great man, by having wide 
thoughts and much feeling for the rest of the world as 
well as ourselves ; and this sort of happiness often 
brings so much pain with it, that we can only tell it 
from pain by its being what we should choose before 
everything. 

George Eliot. 



OCTOBER I. 



— Thoughts, like a loud and sudden rush of wings, 
Regrets and recollections of things past, 
With hints and prophecies of things to be, 
And inspirations, which, could they be things, 
And stay with us, and we could hold them fast. 
Were our good angels. 

Longjellciv. 

OCTOBER 2. 

Ah, let us hope that to our praise 

Good God not only reckons 
The moments when we tread His ways, 

But when the spirit beckons, — 
That some slight good is also wrought 

Beyond self satisfaction, 
When we are simply good in thought, 

Howe'er we fail in action. 

Lowell. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



103 



OCTOBER 3. 

I worked with patience, which is almost power. 

E. B. Browning. 

To bear is to conquer our fate. 

Campbell. 



OCTOBER 4. 

Love not Pleasure ; love God. This is the Everlast- 
ing Yea, wherein all contradiction is solved : wherein 
whoso walks and works, it is well with him. 

Thos. Carlyle. 



OCTOBER 5. 

He whom no praise can reach, is aye, 
Men's least attempts approving ; 

Whom justice makes all-merciful, 
Omniscience makes all-loving. 

How Thou can'st think so well of us, 

Yet be the God Thou art, 
Is darkness to my intellect, 

But sunshine to my heart. 

Faber, 



104 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



OCTOBER 6. 

What is done is done ; it has already blended itself 
with the boundless, ever-living, ever-working Universe, 
and will also work there for good or for evil, openly or 
secretly, throughout all time. 

Thos. Carlyle. 



OCTOBER 7. 

Nothing endures ; the wind moans saying, so ; 

We moan in acquiescence : there's life's fact, 
Perhaps probation— do / know ? 

God does : endure his act ! 

R. Browning. 



OCTOBER 8. 

Let us, then, be what we are, and speak what we think, 

and in all things 
Keep ourselves loyal to truth, and the sacred professions 

of friendship. 

Longfellow. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



105 



OCTOBER 9. 

Yea thro' life, death, thro' sorrow and thro' sinning, 
He shall suffice me, for he hath sufficed: 

Christ is the end, for Christ was the beginning, 
Christ the beginning, for the end is Christ. 

F. Myers. 



OCTOBER IO. 

They are poor 

That have lost nothing ; they are poorer far 
Who, losing, have forgotten ; they most poor 
Of all, who lose and wish they might forget. 
This life is one, and, in its warp and woof 
There runs a thread of gold that glitters fair, 
And sometimes in the pattern shows most sweet 
Where there are sombre colors. It is true 
That we have wept. But oh ! this thread is gold, 
We would not have it tarnish ; let us turn 
Oft and look back upon the wondrous web, 
And when it shineth sometimes we shall know, 
That memory is possession. 

Jean Inge low. 



io6 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



OCTOBER II. 



Write it on your heart that every day is the best day 
in the year. No man has learned anything rightly, until 
he knows that every day is Doomsday. 



Emerson. 



OCTOBER 12. 



•'What I spent I had: 
What I kept I lost ; 
What I gave I have !" 



Old Epitaph. 



OCTOBER 13. 

Yet still thou goest on 

And now with darkness closest wearie eyes, 

Saying to men, 4 It doth suffice — 
Henceforth repose, your work is done.' 

Thus in thy ebony-box 

Thou dost enclose us, till the day 

Put new amendment in our way 
And give new wheels to our disordered clocks. 

George Herbert. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



107 



OCTOBER 14. 

You cannot dream yourself into a character, you must 
hammer and forge yourself into one. 

Anon. 

OCTOBER 15. 

Speak, history ! who are life's victors ? Unroll thy long 

annals and say — 
Are they those whom the world called the victors, who 

won the success of a day ? 
The Martyrs, or Nero ? The Spartans who fell at Ther- 
mopylae's tryst, 
Or the Persians and Xerxes ? His judges or Socrates ? 
Pilate or Christ ? 

IV. W. Story. 
OCTOBER l6. 

To redeem a World sunk in dishonesty has not been 
given thee : solely over one man therein thou hast a 
quite absolute uncontrollable power ; him redeem, him 
make honest ; it will be something, it will be much, and 
thy life and labour not in vain. 

Thos. Carlyle. 



io8 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



OCTOBER 17. 
Tho' much is taken, much abides ; and tho' 
We are not now the strength which in old days 
Moved earth and heaven ; that which we are, we are ; 
One equal temper of heroic hearts, 
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will 
To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield. 

Tennyson. 

OCTOBER l8. 
not afraid to pray — to pray is right, 
Pray, if thou canst, with hope ; but ever pray, 
Though hope be weak, or sick with long delay, 
Pray in the darkness, if there be no light. 

Hartley Coleridge. 

OCTOBER 19 

It is worthy the observing that there is no passion in 
the minde of man, so weake, but it mates, and masters 
the Feare of Death : And therefore Death, is no such 
Enemie, when a man hath so many Attendants about 
him that can winne the combat of him. Revenge 
triumphs over Death : Love slights him ; Hoiiour 
aspireth to it ; Grief e flieth to it. 

Lord Bacon. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



OCTOBER 20. 

Mourning after an absent God is an evidence of a love 
as strong as rejoicing in a present one. 

F. W. Robertson. 

OCTOBER 21. 

Daughters of Time, the hypocritic Days 

Muffled and dumb like barefoot dervishes, 

And marching single in an endless file, 

Bring diadems and fagots in their hands ; 

To each they offer gifts after his will, 

Bread, kingdoms, stars, and sky that holds them all. 

Emerson. 

OCTOBER 22. 

Know well, my soul, God's hand controls 

Whate'er thou fearest ; 
Round Him in calmest music rolls 

Whate'er thou hearest. 
What to thee is shadow, to Him is day, 

And the end He knoweth, 
And not on a blind and aimless way 

The spirit goeth. 

Whittier. 



no 



KINDLY LIGHT, 



OCTOBER 23. 

Not growing discord, which betrays a method that is 
wrong, but growing peace, which shows that the method 
of life is right, is the world's experience of Christianity. 

Newman Smythe. 



OCTOBER 24. 

The well-being of our souls depends only on what we 
are ; and nobleness of character is nothing else but 
steady love of good and scorn of evil. 

y. A . Froude. 

OCTOBER 25. 

Lord, we have wandered forth thro' doubt and sorrow, 
And thou hast made each step an onward one ; 

And we will ever trust each unknown morrow — 
Thou wilt sustain us till the work is done. 

In the heart's depths a peace serene and holy 
Abides ; and when pain seems to have her will, 

Or we despair, oh ! may that peace rise slowly, 
Stronger than agony, and we be still. 

Samuel Johnson. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



Ill 



OCTOBER 25. 

But above all, believe me, the sweetest canticle is 
Nunc Dimittis : when a man hath obtained worthy 
Ends, and Expectations, Death hath this also ; That it 
openeth the Gate to good Fame and extinguisheth Envie. 

Lord Bacon. 

OCTOBER 27. 

Even as a nurse, whose child's imperfect pace 
Can hardly lead his foot from place to place, 
Leaves her fond kissing, sets him down to go, 
Nor does uphold him for a step or two ; 
But when she finds that he begins to fall, 
She holds him up, and kisses him withal; — 
So God from man sometimes withdraws His hand 
Awhile, to teach his infant faith to stand ; 
But when He sees his feeble strength begin 
To fail, He gently takes him up again. 

Quarles. 

OCTOBER 28. 

Every hint of right, every desire after the true, what- 
ever we call aspiration, all longing for light, every per- 
ception that this is true, that that ought to be done, is 
from the Father of lights. 

George Macdonald. 



112 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



OCTOBER 29. 

Withstand the beginnings : the remedy is applied too 
late when the evil has grown strong through long delay. 

Ovid. 

OCTOBER 30. 
And all the way from Calvary down 

The carven pavement shows 
Their graves who won the martyr's crown 

And safe in God repose : 
The saints of many a warring creed 

Who now in heaven have learned 
That all paths to the Father lead 

Where Self the feet have spurned. 

Lowell. 

OCTOBER 31. 

Follow without question the impulse of love to Christ's 
own person ; for this, when really full and sovereign, 
will put you along easily in a kind of infallible way, and 
make your conduct chime, as it were, naturally with all 
God's future, even when that future is unknown ; unty- 
ing the most difficult questions of casuistry without so 
much as a question raised. 

Horace Bushnell. 



NOVEMBER I. 

Most quick to pardon sins is He 

Who unto God draws near. 
One forward step, God taketh three 

To meet, and quit his fear. 

Edwin Arnold. 

NOVEMBER 2. 

God Himself is the best poet, 
And the Real is His song. 
Sing His Truth out fair and full, 
And secure His beautiful. 

E. B. Browning. 

NOVEMBER 3. 

O! for the rest, 
Conscience is harder than our enemies, 
Knows more, accuses w^ith more nicety, 
Nor needs to question Rumor if we fall 
Below the perfect model of our thought. 

George Eliot, 



U4 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



NOVEMBER 4. 

Humble we must be, if to heaven we go : 
High is the roof there, but the gate is low. 

Herrick. 



NOVEMBER 5, 

The Divine wisdom has given us prayer, not as a 
means whereby to obtain the good things of earth, but 
as a means whereby we learn to do without them ; not 
as a means whereby we escape evil, but as a means 
whereby we become strong to meet it. 

F. W. Robertson. 

NOVEMBER 6. 

I ask Thee for a thoughtful love 
Through constant watching wise, 
To meet the glad with joyful smiles, 
And to wipe the weeping eyes ; 
And a heart at leisure from itself 
To soothe and sympathize. 

Anna Waring: 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



115 



NOVEMBER 7. 

Who knows 

What earth needs from earth's lowest creature ? No life 
Can be pure in its purpose, and strong in its strife, 
And all life not be purer and stronger thereby. 

Owen Meredith. 

NOVEMBER 8. 

What is it, but the zest and glory of life, that some- 
thing good and great, something really worthy to be 
done is laid upon us. It is not self indulgence allowed, 
but victory achieved, that can make a fit happiness for 
man. 

Horace BushnelL 

NOVEMBER 9. 

Jesus, do Thou mine eyes unseal, 

And let them grow 
Quick to discern whate'er Thou dost reveal ; 
So shall I be deliver'd from that woe, 

Blindly to stray 
Through hopeless night, while all around is day. 

Richter. 



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KINDLY LIGHT. 



NOVEMBER 10. 

The world is too much, with us ; late and soon, 
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers. 
Little we see in nature that is ours ; 

We have given oar hearts away, a sordid boon. 

Wordsworth. 



NOVEMBER II. 

When a soul has seen 
By the means of Evil that good is best, 
And through earth and its noise, what is heaven's serene, 

When its faith in the same has stood the test, — 
Why, the child grown man, you burn the rod, 

The uses of labor are surely done. 
There remaineth a rest for the people of God. 

R. Browning. 

NOVEMBER 12. 

Our only safety is in serving God. 

Earl of Ross's Motto. 
Let us be seen by our deeds. 

Earl of BeaulietSs Motto. 
Virtue alone is true nobility. 

The Marquis of A ber corn's Motto. 



KINDL Y LIGHT. 



117 



NOVEMBER 1 3. 

If you loved only what were worth your love, 
Love were clear gain, and wholly well for you ; 
Make the low nature better by your throes ! 
Give earth yourself, go up for gain above. 

Robert Browning \ 

NOVEMBER 14. 

Yet they, believe -me, who await 
No gifts from chance, have conquer'd fate. 
They, winning room to see and hear, 
And to men's business not too near, 
Through clouds of individual strife 
Draw homeward to the general life. 

Matthew Arnold. 

NOVEMBER 1 5. 

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ? shall 
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or 
nakedness, or peril, or sword ? . . . . 

Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors 
through him that loved us. 

Romans. 



1 1 8 KINDL Y LIGH T. 



NOVEMBER l6. 

Make my mortal dreams come true, 
With the work I fain would do ; 
Clothe with life the weak intent, 
Let me be the thing I meant ; 
Let me find in Thy employ 
Peace that dearer is than joy : 
Out of self to love be led 
And to heaven acclimated, 
Until all things sweet and good 
Seem my natural habitude. 

Whit tier. 

NOVEMBER 1 7. 

Through zeal knowledge is begotten, through lack of 
zeal knowledge is lost ; let a man who knows this 
double path of gain and loss thus place himself that 
knowledge may grow. 

Buddha. 
NOVEMBER 1 8. 

Not thankful when it pleaseth me, 

As if Thy blessings had spare days ; 
But such a heart, whose pulse may be 
Thy praise. 

George Herbert. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



II 9 



NOVEMBER 19. 

The beauty of Greece depended on the laws of Lycur- 
gus ; the beauty of Rome, on those of Numa ; our own 
on the laws of Christ. 

Ruskin. 
NOVEMBER 20. 

Doubt we, how souls so wanton change, 
Leaving their own experienced rest ? 

Needs not around the world to range ; 
One narrow cell may teach us best. 

John Kehle. 

NOVEMBER 21. 

We see dimly in the present what is small, and what 
is great, 

Slow of faith how weak an arm may turn the iron helm 
of fate, 

But the soul is still oracular ; amid the market's din, 
Let the ominous stern whisper from the Delphic cave 
within, 

" They enslave their children's children who make com- 
promise with sin." 

Lowell. 



120 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



NOVEMBER 22. 

Be noble — that is more than wealth ; 

Do right — that's more than place ; 
Then in the spirit there is health, 

And gladness in the face. 

George Macdonald. 

NOVEMBER 23. 

Since trifles make the sum of human things, 
And half our misery from our foibles springs ; 
Since life's best joys consist in peace and ease, 
And though but few can serve, yet all can please ; 
O let the ungentle spirit learn from hence, 
A small unkindness is a great offence! 

Hannah More. 

NOVEMBER 24. 

Sheltered beneath the Almighty wings 

Thou shall securely rest 
Where neither sun nor moon shall thee 

By day or night molest. 
At home, abroad, in peace, in war, 

Thy God shall thee defend ; 
Conduct thee through life's pilgrimage 

Safe to thy journey's end. 

Anon. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



121 



NOVEMBER 25. 

Hast thou seen higher, holier things than these, 

And therefore must to these thy heart refuse ? 
With the true best, alack, how ill agrees 

That best that thou would'st choose ! 
The summum Pulchrum rests in heaven above ; 

Do thou as best thou may'st, thy duty do : 
Amid the things allowed thee live and love ; 

Some day thou shalt it view. 

A. H. Clough. 

NOVEMBER 26. 

Let them that suffer according to the will of God, 
commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well-doing. 

St. Peter. 

NOVEMBER 27. 

Look down in pity, Lord, we pray, 

On eyes oppressed by moral night, 
And touch the darkened lids, and say, 

The gracious words: " Receive thy sight." 
Then, in clear daylight, shall we see 

Where walked the sinless Son of God; 
And, aided by new strength from Thee, 

Press onward in the path He trod. 

W. C. Bryant. 



122 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



NOVEMBER 28. 

Thine are these orbs of light and shade ; 

Thou madest life in man and brute ; 

Thou madest Death ; and lo, thy foot 
Is on the skull which thou hast made. 
Thou will not leave us in the dust : 

Thou madest man, he knows not why ; 

He thinks he was not made to die ; 
And thou hast made him : thou art just. 

Tennyson. 

NOVEMBER 29. 

Thou hast made us for Thyself, and the heart never 
resteth till it findeth rest in Thee ! 

St. Augustine. 

NOVEMBER 30. 
He always wins who sides with God, 

To him no chance is lost ; 
God's will is sweetest to him when 

It triumphs at his cost. 

Ill that Ke blesses is our good, 

And unblessed good is ill ; 
And all is right that seems most wrong, 

If it be His sweet will ! 

F. W. Faber 



DECEMBER I. 



To love truth for truth's sake, is the principal part of 
human perfection in this world, and the seed-plot of all 
other virtues. 

Locke. 

DECEMBER 2. 

I hold 

That it becomes no man to nurse despair 
But, in the teeth of clench'd antagonisms, 
To follow up the worthiest till he die. 

Tennyson. 

DECEMBER 3. 

Oh, we're sunk enough here, God knows ! 

But not quite so sunk that moments, 
Sure tho' seldom, are denied us, 

When the spirit's true endowments 
Stand out plainly from its false ones, 

And apprise it if pursuing 
Or the right way or the wrong way, 

To its triumph or undoing. 

Robert Browning. 



124 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



DECEMBER 4. 

All persons possessing any portion of power ought to 
be strongly and awfully impressed with an idea that they 
act in trust, and that they are to account for their con- 
duct to that trust to the one great Master, Author and 
Founder of society. 

Burke. 

DECEMBER 5. 

Longing is God's fresh heavenward will 

With our poor earthward striving ; 
We quench it that we may be still 

Content with merely living ; 
But, would we learn that heart's full scope 

WTiich we are hourly wronging, 
Our lives must climb from hope to hope, 

And realize our longing. 

Lowell. 

DECEMBER 6. 

God trieth us, my friends ! let us have faith and calm, 
And work ! O desert sands ! hath not He sown the palm 
Your fiery dust beneath ? 

Victor Hugo. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



125 



DECEMBER J. 

The wages of sin is death : if the wages of virtue be dust 
Would she have heart to endure for the life of the worm 
and the fly ? 

Tennyson. 



DECEMBER 8 

Choose always the way that seems the best, however 
rough it may be. Custom will make it easy and agree- 
able. 

Pythagoras. 



DECEMBER 9. 

Servants of God! — or sons 
Shall T not call you ? because 
Not as servants ye knew 
Your Father's innermost mind, 
His, who unwillingly sees 
One of his little ones lost — 
Yours is the praise, if mankind 
Hath not as yet in its march 
Fainted, and fallen, and died ! 

Matthew A mold. 



126 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



DECEMBER 10. 

'Tis life, whereof our nerves are scant, 
O life, not death, for which we pant ; 
More life and fuller, that I want. 

Tennyson. 

DECEMBER II. 

The most serene, the most truly godlike enjoyment 
open to man, is that which he receives in the testimony 
that he pleases God, and the moral self-approbation of 
his own mind. 

Horace Bushnell. 

DECEMBER 12. 

And do not fear to hope. Can poet's brain 

More than the Father's heart rich good invent ? 

Each time we smell the autumn's dying scent, 
We know the primrose-time will come again ; 
Not more we hope, nor less would soothe our pain. 

Be bounteous in thy faith, for not misspent 

Is confidence unto the Father lent : 
Thy need is sown and rooted for His rain. 

George Macdonald. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



127 



DECEMBER 13. 

We kneel, how weak ; we rise, how full of power ! 

Why, therefore, should we do ourselves this wrong, 

Or others — that we are not always strong, 
That we are ever overborne with care, 

That we should ever weak or heartless be, 
Anxious or troubled, when with us in prayer, 

And joy and strength and courage are with Thee ? 

R. C. Trench. 

DECEMBER 14. 

Duty be thy polar guide — 
Do the right whate'er betide ! 
Haste not ! rest not ! conflicts past, 
God shalt crown thy work at last. 

From the German. 

DECEMBER 1 5. 

If God be for us, who can be against us ? He that 
spared not His own Son, but delivered him up for us all, 
how shall He not with him also freely give us all things ? 

Romans. 



128 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



DECEMBER l6. 

There is no death to those who know of Life ; 
No time to those who see Eternity. 

Anon. 

DECEMBER 1 7. 

The world seemed a grand march of resurrection— out 
of every sorrow springing the joy at its heart, with- 
out which it could not have been a sorrow ; out of the 
troubles and evils and sufferings, and cruelties that 
clouded its history, ever raising the human race, the 
sons of God redeemed in Him who has been made sub- 
ject to Death that He might conquer death for them and 
for His Father — a succession of mighty facts, whose 
meanings only God can evolve, only obedient hearts 
behold. 

George Macdonald. 

DECEMBER 1 8. 

O hearts of love ! O souls that turn 
Like sunflowers to the pure and best 
To you the truth is manifest : 

For they the mind of Christ discern 

Who lean like John upon His breast ! 

Wkittier. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



129 



DECEMBER ID. 

Glory follows virtue as if it were its shadow. 

Cicero. 

DECEMBER 20. 

I will not waste one breath of life in sighing ; 

For other ends has life been given to me; 
Duties and self-devotion, daily dying 

Into a higher, better life with Thee 

My God, with Thee! 

Anon. 

DECEMBER 21. 

It is the belief of the savage that the spirit of every 
enemy he slays enters into him and becomes added to 
his own, accumulating a warrior's strength for the day 
of battle : therefore he slays all he can. It is true in 
the spiritual warfare. Every sin you slay — the spirit of 
that sin passes into you transformed into strength : every 
passion, not merely kept in abeyance by asceticism, but 
subdued by a higher impulse, is so much character 
strengthened. 

F. W. Robertson. 



130 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



DECEMBER 22. 

Man will have what he desires, and will find what is 
really best for him exactly as he honestly seeks for it. 

J. A. Froude. 

DECEMBER 23. 

With aching hands and bleeding feet 
We dig and heap, lay stone on stone ; 

We bear the burden and the heat 
Of the long day and wish t'were done. 

Not till the hours of light return 

All we have built do we discern. 

Matthew A rnold* 

DECEMBER 24. 

Devoutly look, and nought 

But wonders shall pass by thee ; 
Devoutly read, and then 

All books shall edify thee ; 
Devoutly speak, and men 

Devoutly listen to thee ; 
Devoutly act, and then 

The strength of God acts through thee. 

Ruckert. 



KINDLY LIGHT* 



131 



DECEMBER 25. 

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a 
Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 

Luke, 

Like circles widening round, 

Upon a clear blue river, 
Orb after orb, the wondrous sound 
Is echoed on forever: 
Glory to God on high, on earth be peace, 
And love towards men of love — salvation and release. 

John Keble. 

DECEMBER 26. 

To them who by patient continuance in well doing 
seek for glory, and honour, and immortality ; eterna 
life. 

Romans. 

DECEMBER 27. 

What is eternal righteousness, the petty details of do- 
ing or not doing, — to Abraham's passionate immeas- 
urable loyalty of faith ? The faith itself sweeps to the 
outermost skirts of conduct and infuses its devotion into 
every act and feeling. 

71 T. Hunger. 



132 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



DECEMBER 28. 

That low man seeks a little thing to do, 

Sees it and does it : 
This high man, with a great thing to pursue, 

Dies ere he knows it. 

That has the world here — should he need the next 

Let the world mind him ! 
This throws himself on God and unperplext 

Seeking shall find Him. 

Robert Browning, 

DECEMBER 29. 

Such questionings are idle air : 
Leave what to do and what to spare 
To the inspiring moment's care, 

Nor ask for payment 
Of fame or gold, but just to wear 

Unspotted raiment. 

Lowell. 

DECEMBER 30. 

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high call- 
ing of God in Christ Jesus. 

Philififiians. 



KINDLY LIGHT. 



133 



DECEMBER 31. 

Ring out the old, ring in the new, 
Ring, happy hells, across the snow: 
The year is going, let him go ; 

Ring out the false, ring in the true. 

Tennyson. 



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